You can’t believe how much the Detroit Red Wings have impressed me this playoff series. Come on, they’ve impressed you too, haven’t they?

It’s veteran leadership from the coach and GM all the way down to the goaltending, where even the back-up is a Stanley Cup champion. Why did we forget all of that? With 10 players with over 100 games of playoff experience, you can look at it two ways: They know what they’re doing, or they’re too old to do what they want to do. Obviously, it’s the first of the two options that is paying off.

Ok, ok. No, he didn’t say that. But, if you read between the lines he’s kind of saying it. Ok…not even that. But Scott Burnside is at least giving credit where it’s due.

With Game 4 set for Thursday evening in Anaheim, the Red Wings suddenly have emerged as a team not solely reliant on special teams for success, as a team capable of adjusting and turning flaws into success. Such a dramatic turn of affairs was the direct result of Babcock’s bold lineup moves.

“We knew we were going to do that before the series started. We’ve kind of been prepared for that all playoff. If what we were doing wasn’t going to work, we were prepared, kind of scripted what we thought would work,” Babcock said.

No less a hockey authority then Bill Daly, the Deputy Commissioner of the National Hockey League agrees.
Now to be perfectly upfront here, Daly, who by the way loves the game as much, perhaps more, than the business of the game, isn’t calling for a change (not yet anyway), but in a brief audio interviewed that is still posted here (KK audio of interview with Bill Daly), a respected hockey blog site, Daly states in no uncertain terms that several of the designs are barely noticeable in terms of perception of being oversized and that they deserve to be looked at, maybe even under game conditions.
“It’s absolutely true with some of the testing we’ve had,” Daly said about the changes not being all that noticeable. “Even keen and ardent observers of the game (admit that) if you’re sitting in the stands you really wouldn’t notice the difference. Adding three or four inches on both sides and whether you add it to the top of the net or not, it’s almost imperceptible from a fan’s standpoint.”

Pick your poison. That seems to be the name of the game.
No team in the NHL is complete like they used to be. The Canadien, Islander and Oiler dynasties would have marched through the playoffs in today’s game going 16-0 en route. Even the teams from the 90’s would have had a relatively easy road to the Cup because those teams had it all – defense, offense and goaltending.
Now, because of both expansion and the salary cap, a true GREAT team is no longer present in the NHL.

I honestly don’t care if LG suspends Pronger. In fact, I hope he doesn’t. I don’t want to read the alibis and I don’t want to hear the complaints from the Poultry. I want Pronger in there Thursday night; spinning and sputtering and seething.

And I’m betting Babcock isn’t too concerned about it either (if he was he wouldn’t have let Homer play the third. He would have kept him in the room to give the NHL more to think about when they decide whether or not to suspend Pronger today). The way the Wings played last night? Let him play. Let ‘em all play and let’s watch the chips fall.

The National Hockey League has scheduled a disciplinary hearing for later today with Anaheim Ducks defenceman Chris Pronger.
The fact that a hearing will be held does not guarantee a suspension will be handed out, but it does officially open up that possibility.

What to do with Anaheim Ducks defenceman Chris Pronger, that is the question being pondered today?
It says here Pronger should be suspended for at least one game, maybe two.
Pronger is a great player to be sure, but he made a mistake Tuesday night, and it could have been a great big mistake, when he drove Tomas Holmstrom’s head into the glass in the second period of an eventual 5-0 loss to the Detroit Red Wings, the Ducks trailing by four at the time.

Speaking of Niedermayer and Pronger: both deserve at least a one-game suspension for their tag-team assault on Detroit’s Tomas Holmstrom. But I won’t be surprised if neither player receives supplementary discipline, mainly because Daniel Alfredsson got away with a similar cheapshot on Henrik Tallinder in Game 2 of the Sabres-Sens series.

To understand how the Senators have transformed from choking dogs to doggedly determined, it’s necessary to recall the calamitous events around Christmas.
At the time, no one could have known that the negative circumstances enveloping the club foreshadowed a likely trip to the Stanley Cup final. Such a prediction would have earned only scorn.

The Snyders are still trying to shape and build the legacy of their son — most recently with an 18,000-mile trip to all 30 N.H.L. arenas — while coping with something that time and distance has not healed.
The lasting image from Dan Snyder’s death, in this town and across hockey’s sprawling landscape, is painted in forgiveness. Moments after her son died, LuAnn Snyder entered Heatley’s hospital room. He would recover from the broken jaw and the torn-apart knee, but perhaps never from the survivor guilt. She squelched his apologies by saying that he would always be forgiven.

But the more success Heatley has, the more likely his past will be recalled. The desires of Heatley and the Snyders appear, on the surface, to be in opposition: Heatley is trying to move on, the Snyders do not want anyone to forget.

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